A Newbie at Camp Half-Blood
by ThePackRat
Summary: When Annabeth is assigned to show Nallia, a new camper in the Athena cabin, at first she's extatic, but then she starts to notice weird things about her. She's exceptional at fencing, although she claims never to have touched a sword. Almost all of her family are demigods, although she didn't say anything to Chiron. And hellhounds were hunting her with a purpose in mind.


I woke up, nice and early. Today is one of my favorite days: We get to play capture the flag! I mean, sure, I know that we get to do that all the time, but still, it's so fun! A chance for me to challenge my mind and work out a fool-proof strategy to win the game!

(I'm kind of competitive, if you haven't already worked that out on your own.)

Usually, I'm unaccustomed to being joined by someone when I get up earlier than the rest of the camp. But this time, I was joined.

I first noticed it when I heard a knock at my door. I ignored it, thinking it was Seaweed Brain. But, a few seconds later, the knock came again, more swiftly.

"Oh, all right, all right, I'm coming already," I grumbled, throwing on some jeans and grabbing my Yankee's baseball cape, just in case. When I swung open the door, I saw that it was Chiron.

"Oh!" I exclaimed in quiet surprise. He put a finger to his lips, looking around to see if he had woken anyone. His hands were on the shoulders of a small girl with brown hair so thin that it looked like she was more nymph then demigod, that looked about my age, but she seemed very shy.

"Annabeth, good morning! I'm sorry if I woke you. This is Nallia. She's a new camper. We have reason to believe that she is a daughter of Athena."

"Wow!" I exclaimed, brightening. We hadn't gotten a new camper in a long time!

"That's great! But, why did she come so early?"

Chiron's face darkened, as did Nallia's. He gripped her shoulders tighter, more protectively.

"Hellhounds. They sought her out. We don't know why. There were other monsters, too. She was thinking she was insane, and we needed to act quickly before she acted upon that notion. I trust that you can be her guide. Show her around camp. Get her some ambrosia. Teach her how to fence properly; I trust she's never held a sword."

I couldn't help but snicker at the thought of Shrimpy there holding a sword ever, but I composed myself seeing Chiron's one raised eyebrow.

"Get her ready. After all, today we're playing capture the flag, and I want everyone trying their hardest!" With a little wave, Chiron turned and cantered off.

I looked at Nallia, who was looking at everything nervously. After a long, more-then-awkward pause, I broke the ice.

"You'd better come inside," I blurted.

As happy as I was that we were getting a new camper, I felt a little disappointed; I had planned to spend the day with Percy. Ah, well, Seaweed Brain had Grover. I had Hellhound-Lady. After about an hour of explaining to her the whole demigod thing, and about Camp Half-Blood and about the gods and the goddesses and how all of this works, all of the other campers were up.

"Come on! Let's go outside." I said, finally getting out of that cabin, even though I should have been out for a while. I had just stepped outside when I tripped on a piece of paper. Who does that?! As soon as I had realized that it was a note from Percy, though, Clarisse had snatched it out of my hands. I was still flat on my face, and Clarisse planted her muddy boot on my back so as to keep me from grabbing distance of the letter.

"'Dear Annabeth,

Wanna go fencing this afternoon at about 12? I have a new move that I have to practice. I won't take no for an answer!

I'm looking forward to it,

-Seaweed Brain.'" Clarisse read out loud in a mocking voice.

"Aw, is he your boyfriend? You seem more like a daughter of Aphrodite! That crap is so stupid." She laughed, chucking the letter behind her shoulder.

"At least fencing with Percy is better than looking at you!" I called out, even though I knew it was a really lame comeback.

Blushing beet-red, I stood up and brushed the boot-print from off of me and took Nallia's arm.

"Let's go to the beach, shall we?"

I showed Nallia around camp, introducing her to other campers until the sun was shining brightly on the camp. I looked at my watch. It was about 12:00.

"Hey, let's go fencing now, huh?"

She shrugged her wiry shoulders.

"Okay," she said quietly. It was the first word that she had said to me all morning, besides slight nods and shakes of the head. I took her down to the arena. But, by then, Percy wasn't there. I wasn't disappointed, I had a duty to Nallia. Besides, who needed Seaweed Brain?

"Okay, so this first move is called a Parry. It goes like this." Before I even twitched, however, Nallia swung out with her sword, doing an absolutely _perfect_ Parry.

"Wow! That... that's not bad," I said, not wanting to compliment her too much, because it might go to her head.

"This next move is a Capo Faro." As soon as I said 'Capo Faro', she jabbed with her blade, again doing a perfect Capo Faro.

"Whoa! How are you doing that?!" I exclaimed loudly.

"I don't know... it's instinct." She said, rolling her head and cracking her knuckles, her voice much louder.

"Well, if it's instinct, then let's practice with some fighting. I'm going to go moderately hard on you." And, with that, we began.

"So, tell me about your family." I said, concentrating on the blade.

"My mother was a demigod. My father was a demigod. Heck, almost ALL of my family are demigods. It goes back a long way, trust me."

"Um, exactly _how _long?"

She shrugged again.

"I dunno. It goes back so far that my dad doesn't even remember if his ancestor was a son or daughter of Ares or Hephaistos. Same thing with my mom, but with Ares or Athena."

"Why the heck didn't you say anything when I was giving you the whole 'demigod schpeal'?"

"I dunno."

I rolled my eyes.

"My word." After a while of the fight, I began to sweat buckets. I wiped the sweat on the back of my hands, but the fact is, I was getting REALLY tired, and it looked like Nallia was just getting warmed up.

"So (pant, pant) how long have you been trained in fighting?" I panted.

"I've never touched a sword in my life." And, with that, she knocked the sword out of my hand, sending it skidding across the room. She knocked by down and put her foot on my chest and her sword to my throat. I stood up, brushing myself off and backing away from her. Then I ran out the door, and pointing to her while calling out over my shoulder I yelled,

"You (pant, pant) are insane!" And with that, I sprinted out of the arena to go get Chiron.


End file.
